Full name Athletic Club President Josu Urrutia League División de Honor | Ground Capacity 1,500 Coach Ibán Fuentes | |
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Ground Instalaciones de Lezama, Biscay,
Basque Country, Spain | ||
The cantera (quarry) of Spanish professional football club Athletic Bilbao is the organisation's youth academy, developing players from childhood through to the integration of the best prospects into the adult teams.
Contents
- Background and structure
- National competitions
- International tournaments
- Head coaches
- Juvenil A
- Juvenil B
- Famous players
- Superliga Liga de Honor sub 19
- Divisin de Honor Juvenil
- Honours
- References
The final category within the youth structure is the Juvenil A [(Basque: Gazteak A) under-18/19 team team which represents the club in national competition. The successful graduates then usually move to the club's affiliated team for younger players, CD Basconia, or less commonly to the reserve team, Bilbao Athletic, which are also considered part of the cantera due to being a stage in progression towards the senior team, albeit competing in the adult league system.
The academy is based at the club training complex, Lezama, which is often the name used informally to refer to the system itself.
Background and structure
The top football clubs in the Spanish leagues generally place great importance in developing their cantera to promote the players from within or sell to other clubs as a source of revenue. As a club who have a small pool of players to choose from due to their Basque-only policy, this focus on home-grown talent is even more vital to Athletic Bilbao. Most of their current first team players are youth academy graduates (15 of the squad in 2014). In 2016, Athletic's total of 17 homegrown players (as per UEFA guidelines, 3 years of training between 15 and 21 years old) still at their formative club was the highest across Europe's 'big five' leagues, and far more than all other top clubs apart from neighbours Real Sociedad. A sum of 25 including 8 former trainees at other eligible clubs ranked as the 5th highest, although only 3rd in Spain behind Real Madrid and Barcelona who retained just a few of the many high-level players they produced.
The core of boys from the local Biscay region are first introduced into the Lezama Alevín teams at around 10 years of age and advance by an age group every season through Infantil, Cadete and Juvenil levels. The players who are retained by Athletic after their Juvenil A spell (aged about 17) typically join farm team CD Basconia in Basauri, with the squad normally expanded further with signings from the regions’s youth clubs, most notably Danok Bat and Antiguoko who regularly challenge Athletic, Osasuna and Real Sociedad for the title in their División de Honor group.
The players typically spend 1 or 2 seasons at Basconia before the best progress to the reserve team Bilbao Athletic and then on to the senior team when considered ready to do so. There are exceptions to this sequence; notably Iker Muniain showed such promise that he was promoted early to Juvenil A as a 15-year-old in 2008, moved straight to Bilbao Athletic as soon as he turned 16 in January 2009 and became a senior team regular at the start of the next season.
National competitions
The Juvenil A team play in Group II of the División de Honor Juvenil de Fútbol as their regular annual competition. Their main rivals in the league group are Real Sociedad and Osasuna. The under-17 team, Juvenil B, plays in the Liga Nacional Juvenil which is the lower division of the same structure.
The team also regularly participates in the Copa de Campeones Juvenil and the Copa del Rey Juvenil, qualification for which is dependent on final league group position. In these nationwide competitions the opposition includes the academy teams of Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Sevilla and Real Madrid.
International tournaments
For many years Athletic have been active in entering their youth team into international tournaments to gain experience, and in recent times these events have gained prominence in the football calendar. In 2012 the Juvenil team (including Aymeric Laporte and Iñaki Williams) appeared in the invitational NextGen Series but this was subsequently discontinued.
In 2013-14 Athletic's senior team qualified for the Champions League group stages, meaning that the Juvenil squad could play in the 2014-15 version of the UEFA Youth League. In the subsequent years there was no further chance to participate in that competition due to the senior team failing to qualify. The alternative route into the Youth League would be to win the previous season’s Copa de Campeones but Athletic Juvenil have so far been unable to achieve this.
A younger age group (The Cadete B squad) also competes in the Manchester United Premier Cup annually. In 1998 Athletic, coached by future senior team boss Ernesto Valverde, won the tournament, although none of the players involved - not even Player Of The Tournament Jonan García - were able to become regulars in the senior team. Coincidentally that season was also very successful for other sections within the club: the senior team finished 2nd in the league and qualified for the Champions League while Bilbao Athletic finished 2nd in their Segunda B group and Basconia won their Tercera section, although neither subsidiary was promoted.
In 2006 (featuring Erik Morán in the squad) and 2012 (including Asier Villalibre) Athletic cadets also competed at the Manchester United Premier Cup world finals as the Spanish league representative after winning the national qualifier.
Head coaches
The coaches are often former Athletic players who themselves graduated from Lezama. The director of the academy is another former player, José María Amorrortu.
Juvenil A
As of August 2016Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Juvenil B
As of January 2017Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Famous players
Notable graduates who passed through the youth system on their way to establishing themselves with the Athletic senior side and/or other clubs (since the opening of Lezama) include:
As of January 2017players currently at Athletic in bold, 'graduation' year in parentheses
Superliga / Liga de Honor sub-19
Double-winning seasons shown in bold
División de Honor Juvenil
Seasons with two or more trophies shown in bold
Honours
National competitions